The invention relates to a method and a device for controlling data connections and/or data transmissions in a mobile radio device.
DE102013215728.2, which was not published before the present application, describes a method and a device for selecting a radio transmission channel in a radio system. In order to select a radio transmission channel from a group of radio transmission channels, data are used that relate to at least one previous radio connection, i.e., so-called historical data, for at least one of the radio transmission channels in a local region.
DE102013215729.0, which has not been published yet, discloses a system and a device for selecting a radio transmission channel in a radio system. A radio transmission channel is selected from a group of radio transmission channels by use of control data that are generated and/or stored outside of a mobile unit, wherein the data are transmitted, in particular, from an external data source to the mobile unit. The control data can comprise data regarding at least one previous radio connection, i.e., so-called historical data.
DE102013215730.4, which has not been published yet, describes a method for the optimized selection of a wireless communication channel in hybrid vehicle-based communication systems, wherein a requirement profile for a communication is predefined by a user and/or a vehicle manufacturer. The requirement profile contains entries, by which a suitability of a communication channel relative to another communication channel can be evaluated, wherein the entries can correspond to respective predefined properties of potential radio channels. A previously stored history can be accessed for this purpose.
CN103283271 discloses a system for estimating handover properties, which system comprises a device for determining movement routes that extend through a handover region or an adjacent region, wherein the movement routes are determined by use of map information regarding the handover region and the adjacent region. The handover region is a region in which a handover operation occurs between cells in a mobile communications system. The system further comprises a device for calculating handover properties of the movement routes by use of radio information regarding the environment of the movement routes.
The above-described devices and method for selecting a radio channel have proven effective in practical applications.
The problem addressed by the invention is that of enabling control of data connections and/or data transmissions in a mobile radio device, with which data connections between mobile radio devices and a transceiver can be used efficiently, the quality of service can be increased, and/or the data transmission costs or transmission costs can be reduced, in a manner that is simple and, in particular, cost-effective even with dynamically changing radio connections.
Another problem addressed by the present invention can be considered that of creating a mobile radio device that easily and cost-effectively enables efficient use of a data connection with a high quality of service and low transmission costs.
At least one of these problems is solved by the embodiments according to the invention.
In a method according to the invention for controlling at least one data connection and/or one data transmission via this at least one data connection in a mobile radio device, route- and/or user-specific information is acquired by way of one or more agents that are coupled to the at least one mobile radio device. In addition, the route- and/or user-specific information is used to control at least one data connection and/or one data transmission with respect to time and/or with respect to transmission parameters via this at least one data connection.
The agents can be used to acquire route- and/or user-specific information regarding the mobile radio device to which the agent is coupled. These are then historical data, which are used to control at least one data connection and/or one data transmission. It is also possible to acquire route- and/or user-specific information regarding other mobile radio devices. These data can be current or can also be historical data acquired over a relatively long period of time. This route- and/or user-specific information can also be used to control at least one data connection and/or one data transmission.
By acquiring route- and/or user-specific information and taking this into account, it is possible to efficiently use data connections between mobile radio devices and a transceiver and/or increase the quality of service and/or reduce the data transmission costs or transmission costs when controlling at least one data connection and/or one data transmission in a manner that is simple and, in particular, cost-effective even with dynamically changing radio connections. This is because the accounting for the route- and/or user-specific information is a substantial decision-making aid for automatically controlling a data connection and/or data transmission.
The route- and/or user-specific information can be acquired by way of a data collecting module that stores the route- and/or user-specific information as control information in an internal memory. The agent can also be designed as a self-learning system, in which the route- and/or user-specific information is acquired by learning during operation.
A data connection is a physical and/or logical connection between an application of the mobile radio device and an external communication partner for transmitting data, wherein such a data connection can use one or more radio channels.
The term “data transmission” describes the operation of transmitting data via a data connection. Examples thereof are downloading data (video files, audio files, applications, etc.) over or from the Internet, transmitting data for the purpose of carrying out a telephone conversation, playing a video and playing back audio data (music, etc.) via the mobile radio device in a streaming method, etc.
A radio system or a radio communication system comprises a transceiver and a mobile radio device, which communicate with one another via at least one radio channel.
A radio channel is a radio connection of one or more mobile radio devices via a certain frequency of a radio system to a transceiver located outside of the mobile radio devices. The connection capacity of the radio channel can be divided between a plurality of mobile radio devices in a time-division multiplexing method. The division of the connection capacities can also take place by assigning certain radio channels to certain data connections in the frequency-division multiplexing method. It is also possible to divide the connection capacities in a combination time- and frequency-dividing multiplexing method.
The connection capacity of a radio channel substantially corresponds to the data rate. The connection capacity can be defined more precisely by a combination of the data rate with the error rate by subtracting the error rate from the data rate. In addition, other parameters, such as latency, for example, can be incorporated into the determination of the connection capacity.
The control information comprises those parameters, on the basis of which a data connection and/or a data transmission can be controlled, such as transmission parameters, time information, location information, movement-specific information, user information, environment information, etc. These can be current and/or historical parameters that were stored in the past and/or have been repeatedly called up. There are relationships between individual parameters and groups of parameters.
The transmission parameters comprise connection parameters and data parameters.
The connection parameters are parameters that describe physical and logical properties of a data connection, such as the radio channel or radio channel ID, frequency, data rate, latency, error rate, capacity utilization, radio cell, time slot, availability, quality-of-service parameters, costs of the radio systems or channels, etc.
The data parameters are parameters that describe a data transmission via a data connection or that describe the properties of the data, such as data quantity, storage location, link or reference to the data, type of data, resolution of image or video data, the codec that is used, minimum data rate required for transmission, quality-of-experience parameters, costs of the data transmission or the data, etc.
Time information includes time of day, date, day of the week, type of weekday (work day, weekend, holiday), etc.
Location information includes location coordinates, maps, geodata, locations, topographical information, route information, weather data, etc.
Movement-specific information are parameters that describe the speed of movement, direction of movement, traffic density, etc.
User information is age, gender, behavior information, wherein behavior information describes the behavior of the user with respect to a data connection, a data transmission, or data.
Environment information is information that describes when and where small or relatively large groups of people are located at certain locations and/or how these groups collectively move, such as, for example, public events (sporting events, concerts, etc.), route schedules of transportation means, etc.
Route- and user-specific information includes all control information that is suitable for describing a driving route or the user behavior. This is, in particular, location coordinates of a driving route, geodata regarding the driving route, time information regarding the driving route or the user behavior, descriptions of user interactions, etc. In addition, this is all the control information, such as, for example, transmission parameters or connection parameters, which are linked to a description of the driving route. A driving route can be characterized, in particular, by a location, a destination and/or by at least one route location located between a starting location and a destination, or by the respective location coordinates thereof. The driving route can be traveled, in particular, by a user with a vehicle. In so doing, the user can also switch between a plurality of vehicles on the driving route, e.g., between a motor vehicle used individually by the user and a means of public transportation (bus, train, ferry, etc.) and/or vice versa, and or the user can travel segments of the driving route by foot, for example.
The control information can be provided by a mobile radio device or by a plurality of mobile radio devices. The control information is preferably statistically analyzed, wherein the values are weighted, in particular, according to their frequency.
An agent is a software unit that can autonomously acquire data. An agent comprises a module that statistically analyzes the data. Such a module that statistically analyzes the data can be a module that analyzes control information when stored or read out of the internal memory and, in particular, weights the control information according to its frequency. Such a module can also be a self-learning system, such as, for example, a neural network or a support vector machine (SVM), which acquires the data by internally weighting control information. The agent is designed to show a specified, independent, and inherently dynamic (autonomous) behavior.
The route- and/or user-specific information is collected during the operation of the mobile radio device and is stored as control information in an internal memory, wherein the control information is preferably stored so as to be linked to location and/or time information.
The control of a data transmission or data connection with respect to time makes it possible to access the data or a data transmission temporally in advance (prefetching) or with a time delay (delayed fetching). As a result, the connection capacities of a radio system can be used efficiently by transmitting data in advance when a fast radio connection is present. However, if a radio connection that is faster than the current radio connection will become available in the near future (e.g., due to an expected change in position of the mobile radio device), the data transmission can be delayed. This can take place with consideration for the point in time at which the data must be present for the user or at the mobile radio device.
A time-controlled data transmission can also minimize the transmission costs by transmitting large quantities of data over a cost-effective radio channel or a cost-effective radio system when there is an existing connection. Such a data transmission can take place in advance and as a delayed data transmission.
The control of a data connection with respect to transmission parameters includes the control of a radio channel. The control of a radio channel includes handover operations. A handover refers to a change in the frequency, a change in the time slot, a change in the radio cell, or a change in the radio system. The handover operations can be divided into various categories. A change within a radio cell of a radio system to another frequency or another time slot is referred to as an intracellular handover, a change within a radio system from one radio cell to an adjacent radio cell is referred to as a horizontal handover, and a change between radio systems that may have a different mobile radio technology is referred to as a vertical handover. By controlling handover operations, it is possible to efficiently divide the available radio capacities between the individual mobile radio devices, ensure a radio connection of a single mobile radio device when there is a radio system present at the position of the mobile radio device and when the mobile radio device moves, and select a more cost-effective and/or faster radio channel.
By controlling transmission parameters in a data transmission, it is possible to efficiently use available connection capacities of radio channels or a radio system by reducing the data rate or bandwidth that is used by an application when there is a connection to a radio channel or a radio system having a smaller transmission capacity. Likewise, when the available connection capacity is more than sufficient, the quality of service can be increased by increasing the data rate used by an application. The data rate can be increased or reduced, e.g., by adjusting the resolution and/or the codec of an application accordingly.
The agent is preferably installed as an internal agent in a mobile radio device, in particular on a mobile radio device arranged in a motor vehicle. The internal agent extracts information from existing radio connections, in particular radio-system specific information or connection parameters, and/or movement-specific or driving-behavior specific from other devices coupled to the mobile radio device, in particular location information, and/or time information, such as, for example, from a navigation system, tachometer, thermometer, rain sensor, calendar, or a clock. The agent stores this extracted information as control information.
Radio-system specific information or connection parameters are parameters that describe the radio channel, such as, for example, the radio channel ID, frequency, data rate, latency, error rate, capacity utilization, radio cell, time slot, availability, quality-of-service parameters, costs of the radio systems or channels, etc.
Route-specific information refers to parameters that describe a route and its environment, such as, for example, location coordinates, maps, geodata, topographical information, speed, direction, traffic density, ambient temperature, precipitation, and date values or times linked to the route, etc.
In addition, control information that describes the behavior of the user of the mobile radio device can be stored in the mobile radio device as user-specific control information.
User-specific control information that repeats often over a relatively long period of time is preferably weighted according to the frequency thereof by use of a statistical analysis. The information is accounted for in the control of the data connections and/or data transmissions by means of these weightings.
The acquired control information can be made anonymous and available for transmission to other mobile radio devices. This is an independent inventive concept, which can be implemented independently of the method for controlling data connections and/or data transmissions.
In this case, the transmission can take place via the transceiver, or also via a communication from the mobile radio device of a user to the mobile radio device of another user, such as, for example, a car2car communication.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the agent is provided on a transceiver and/or on a radio system control server, wherein the agent extracts information from existing radio connections, in particular radio-system specific information, and wherein the radio system control server controls the at least one data connection and/or the data transmission via the at least one data connection of the radio system.
By providing the agent as an external agent on a transceiver and/or on a radio system control server, which is connected to the transceiver, the agent can extract information from existing, in particular all, radio connections that are present at the transceiver, i.e., also radio connections from a plurality of mobile radio devices. The acquisition, storage, and (statistical) analysis can be carried out by the external agent in the same manner as by the above-described internal agent. The external agent has a substantially larger database, however.
The extracted information can also be analyzed and, possibly, anonymized, and can be transmitted as control information to a plurality of mobile radio devices.
A central communication unit of a motor vehicle, comprising at least one connecting module for establishing at least one wireless data connection between the central communication unit and at least one transceiver located outside the central communication unit is characterized by a communication organizing module. The communication organizing module is designed such that the communication organizing module controls the at least one data connection and/or the data transmission via the at least one data connection between the central communication unit and the at least one transceiver as per any one of the above-described methods according to the invention.
A radio system according to the invention comprises at least one transceiver and at least one mobile radio device according to the invention, wherein the at least one transceiver and the at least one mobile radio device communicate with one another via at least one data connection over at least one radio channel.
A motor vehicle according to the invention is characterized in that the motor vehicle comprises a mobile radio device according to the invention and can be connected to a transceiver of the above-described radio system via at least one wireless data connection.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of one or more preferred embodiments when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.